Grimsby potter Carrington hits out at opponent’s slow play
...BUT CUEMAN STILL WINS TENSE DECIDER TO MAKE PROGRESS IN SHOWPIECE TOURNAMENT
STUART Carrington blasted Barry Pinches’ slow play after battling through the ‘craziest and strangest’ match of his career to keep his UK Championship hopes alive.
The Grimsby player won a 6-5 marathon in Milton Keynes on Thursday as he fought back from 5-4 behind to book a clash with world No.9 Stephen Maguire this afternoon.
The first round match lasted almost six hours and Carrington, the world No.54, blamed Pinches’ 33 second average shot time for elongating the encounter.
“I felt good in patches but just kept missing the odd ball. He’s not the quickest player on tour so instead of the frame getting killed off when it should have been, it was lasting half an hour extra,” said Carrington, 30.
“I haven’t got a problem with anyone being slow – I’m not the quickest – but there were certain frames, and I’m sure he wasn’t meaning to do it as he’s a real nice bloke and I get on with him well, where you knew what you were going to play, easy chances and shots, and he’s just literally walking round the table and pondering over it.
“There were times where he knew that he needed to get the rest and he would walk round the table and take an extra 20 seconds just doing what you know you’ve got to do.
“There were just certain little things yesterday where I was thinking ‘there’s no need to be doing what you’re doing.’ It was getting to me, and I’ll openly admit it was getting to me, which may have affected myself in the game or it may not, I don’t know.
“I was actually sat in my chair getting a little bit wound up. So many things were going through my head during my match – it was probably the craziest, strangest match that I’ve ever played. “You see the evening session starting at 7 o’clock and I’m still sat there at 5-4 thinking ‘what’s going on?’ The crazy thoughts that you think sometimes during a match really is crazy, but this was just on a different level.
“I’m delighted and so relieved to get over the line the way I did because I was down and out at 5-4 down. In a way I was lucky but in a way should it have got that close? Probably not.” Carrington made two steady half-century breaks and while efforts of 100, 68, 64 and 52 from Pinches teed up a nervy decider, the Grimsby player edged over the line at the Marshall Arena.
Next up for Carrington is a date against six-time ranking event winner Maguire, who breezed past Ukrainian teenager Iulian Boiko 6-1 in his first round match. Carrington has never beaten the Scot but knows he can be a match for anyone as he eyes up a first third round appearance at the UK Championship since 2013.
“I don’t really look at past results and I’m not one of them who really believes in that,” he added.
“Every match is different and every day is different. I know on my day I can compete and beat Stephen, but I’m going to have to play a lot better than what I did against Barry to win that match. I’m going in with a different mindset and hopefully I can produce what I’m capable of.”
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I was actually sat in my chair getting a little bit wound up. So many things were going through my head during my match – it was probably the craziest, strangest match that I’ve ever played.
Stuart Carrington